The First Elcanidae (Orthoptera, Elcanoidea) from the Daohugou Fossil Bed of Northeastern China
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A peer-reviewed open-access journal ZooKeys 897: 19–28Elcanidae (2019) (Orthoptera, Elcanoidea) from the Daohugou fossil bed of China 19 doi: 10.3897/zookeys.897.37608 SHORT COMMUNICATION http://zookeys.pensoft.net Launched to accelerate biodiversity research The first Elcanidae (Orthoptera, Elcanoidea) from the Daohugou fossil bed of northeastern China He Tian1, Jun-Jie Gu2, Xiang Chu Yin3,4, Dong Ren1 1 College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, 105 Xisanhuanbeilu, Haidian District, Beijing, 100048, China 2 Institute of Ecological Agriculture, College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 611130, China 3 Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 23, Xinning Road, 810008, Xining, China 4 College of Life Sciences, Hebei University, Baoding, 071002, China Corresponding author: Jun-Jie Gu ([email protected]) Academic editor: F. Montealegre-Z | Received 22 June 2019 | Accepted 1 November 2019 | Published 9 December 2019 http://zoobank.org/3CA86E3F-9828-4E1F-A065-B14C3417A851 Citation: Tian H, Gu J-J, Yin XC, Ren D (2019) The first Elcanidae (Orthoptera, Elcanoidea) from the Daohugou fossil bed of northeastern China. ZooKeys 897: 19–28. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.897.37608 Abstract A new species of Elcanidae (Orthoptera, Elcanoidea), Parelcana pulchmacula sp. nov., is described based on four new specimens from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of northeastern China. The new species differs from all other known Archelcaninae species by its combination of wing-venation characters. This new finding improves our knowledge of variation on wing venation in elcanid insects and constitutes the first record of Elcanidae from the Daohugou fossil bed (Yanliao Biota) of northeastern China. Keywords Archelcaninae, Inner Mongolia, Middle Jurassic, Parelcana, systematic paleontology, Yanliao Biota Introduction The extinct family Elcanidae is a cryptic group of Orthoptera insects due to their complex anatomical features. The caeliferan-like wing venation, characteristic of this family, groups them close to Caelifera in cladistic analyses (Béthoux and Nel 2002). However, Elcanidae also shares a long, filiform antennae and exerted ovipositors with the suborder Ensifera. The presence of these contrasting anatomical features makes the systematic position of Elcanidae unclear. Copyright He Tian et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 20 He Tian et al. / ZooKeys 897: 19–28 (2019) The Elcanidae existed from the Upper Triassic to the Cretaceous in Eurasia and America (Handlirsch 1906; Sharov 1968; Martins-Neto 1991; Gorochov et al. 2006; Poinar et al. 2007; Peñalver and Grimaldi 2010; Fang et al. 2015; Fang et al. 2018a, Fang et al. 2018b; Heads et al. 2018; Tian et al. 2019). So far 50 species in 16 genera have been described from compression fossils and ambers. These species have been divided into two subfamilies, the Archelcaninae and the Elcaninae, based on taxonomic charac- ters (Gorochov et al. 2006). Elcanids evolved a unique character among orthopterans, i.e., the presence of various spurs on the distal part of the metatibia. These structures might have been associated with an improved capability to swim (Tian et al. 2019). The Jurassic elcanids are well known from the UK (Handlirsch 1906; Whalley 1985), Germany (Handlirsch 1906; Ansorge 1996), Kazakhstan (Sharov 1968), and Kyrgyzstan (Sharov 1968). In China, two specimens have been reported, one from the Guangxi Prov- ince (from Early Jurassic), and one from the Hebei Province (from Middle Jurassic). Both were attributed to Elcana reticulata (Handlirsch, 1939), based on existing highly fragmented forewing sample specimens (Handlirsch 1939; Hong 1983; Lin 1986). Other Orthoptera are commonly discovered from the Daohugou fossil bed, at the widely known and profuse fossil assemblages of Yanliao Biota, northeastern China. Numerous species discovered from this fossil bed have been described, including ensiferans and caeliferans (Ren and Meng 2006; Ren et al. 2010, 2019; Gu et al. 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016; Wang et al. 2017). In this report we describe a new species of Elcanidae, Parelcana pulchmacula sp. nov., from the Daohugou fossil bed. The new species is erected based on four isolated but well-preserved forewings, providing new insights into the complex wing-venation patterns of elcanids. Geological setting The specimens described here were collected in the Daohugou Bed, located along the boundaries of the provinces of Hebei, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia (Fig. 1). The Dao- hugou Bed has been previously assigned to the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation (Ren et al. 2002, 2010, 2019). The Mesozoic section of the Daohugou Bed is mainly composed of tuffaceous conglomerates, tuffaceous siltstones, tuffaceous mudstones, tuffaceous shales, and volcanic breccias. Isotopic radiometric dating of rock samples from the Daohugou area enabled assessment of the age of the Jiulongshan Formation at circa 168–164 million years (Chen et al. 2004; He et al. 2004; Liu et al. 2006; Yang and Li 2008; Chang et al. 2014). This indicates that the age of the Jiulongshan Forma- tion falls within the Bathonian–Callovian boundary interval (Xu et al. 2016). Materials and methods The wing specimens were examined with a Nikon SMZ 25 microscope, and photo- graphed with a Nikon DS-Ri 2 digital camera system. Line drawings were prepared us- ing Adobe Illustrator CC 17.0.0 and Adobe Photoshop CC 14.0 graphics software. The measurements were taken using Adobe Illustrator. The lengths of wings were measured Elcanidae (Orthoptera, Elcanoidea) from the Daohugou fossil bed of China 21 Figure 1. Location map for Parelcana pulchmacula sp. nov. from the apex to the visible base of the wing; the widths of wings refer to the maximum width of the wing. The specimens are deposited in the Key Lab of Insect Evolution & Environmental Changes, Capital Normal University (CNU), Beijing, China. Wing-venation analyses followed the interpretation proposed by Béthoux and Nel (2001, 2002). Corresponding abbreviations used in taxonomical descriptions are as follows: CP, posterior costa; ScA, ScP, anterior and posterior subcosta, respectively; RA, RP, anterior and posterior radius, respectively; M, media; MA, MP, anterior, posterior media, respectively; CuA, CuP, anterior, posterior cubitus, respectively; CuPaα, the anterior branch of first posterior cubitus; CuPaβ, the posterior branch of first posterior cubitus; CuPb, the second posterior cubitus; AA1, first branch of anterior anal vein. Systematic paleontology Class Insecta Linnaeus, 1758 Order Orthoptera Olivier, 1789 Suborder Ensifera Chopard, 1920 Superfamily Elcanoidea Handlirsch, 1906 Family Elcanidae Handlirsch, 1906 Subfamily Archelcaninae Gorochov, Jarzembowski & Coram, 2006 Genus Parelcana Handlirsch, 1906 Type species. Parelcana tenuis Handlirsch, 1906. 22 He Tian et al. / ZooKeys 897: 19–28 (2019) Composition. Parelcana tenuis Handlirsch, 1906 (Jurassic, Dobbertin, Germany), P. anglicana Handlirsch, 1939 (Jurassic, Binton, UK), probably P. dubia Handlirsch, 1939 (Jurassic, Gloucester, UK) and Parelcana pulchmacula sp. nov. (Handlirsch 1939; Cigliano et al. 2019). Revised diagnosis. ScP with numerous branches ending at the anterior margin; M with 3 branches before RP fused with MA1; short CuA; CuPaβ, CuPb, and AA1 detached from each other. Comments. All species of genus Parelcana are based on forewing structure. The fore- wing of Parelcana differs from other genera in Archelcaninae by the presence of 3 branch- es of M before RP fuses with MA1, and presence a very short and nearly vertical CuA. Parelcana pulchmacula sp. nov. http://zoobank.org/8BD8814A-4A53-41C6-8648-00855507D6CF Fig. 2 Diagnosis. ScP with 6–8 branches ending in anterior margin; CuA very short and fu- sion with CuPaα before ScA ends in anterior margin, CuA+CuPaα long and S-shaped; occurrence of two big and round dark spots in distal half of wing and one small spot covering the area of CuPa. Etymology. From the latin ‘Pulch-’ for beautiful and ‘macula’ for patches, referring to the beautiful spots and coloration of the forewing. Type materials. Holotype, CNU-ORT-NN2016041; Paratypes, CNU-ORT- NN2016035; CNU-ORT-NN2016036; CNU-ORT-NN2016042. Locality and age. Daohugou Village, Shantou Township, Ningcheng County, In- ner Mongolia, China; Jiulongshan Formation, Middle Jurassic. General description. Forewing 18.4–20.9 mm long and 4.3–5.0 mm wide (maxi- mum width recorded). Costal area long and narrow; CP nearly straight, ending in ante- rior margin after the forking of M+CuA, generating numerous distinct oblique branches ending in the anterior margin; ScA slightly curved, ending in the anterior margin before 1/3 of total wing length; ScP reaching anterior margin at nearly half-length of wing and generating 6–8 oblique branches ending in the anterior margin; stem R+M+CuA fork- ing into R and M+CuA after the divergence point of CuPa; stem R long and distinctly strong, branched into RA and RP near the mid-length of wing; area between ScP and R narrow; RA slightly curved towards posterior wing margin before its first branch, reach- ing anterior margin close to apex with 16–18 oblique branches; RP with 10–12 comb- like branches reaching wing margin, most of them reaching posterior margin, with sev- eral distal terminals dichotomizing and reaching anterior margin; area between RA and RP relatively wide; M forking into MA and MP near to the end of ScA; MA branching into MA1 and MA2 close to the end of ScP; MA1 with 2 branches, with the first fused with RP; MP simple, originates after ScA ends at anterior margin; CuA extremely short, 0.16 to 0.20 mm long, originates before CP ends at anterior margin; CuA almost verti- cal against the posterior margin; free CuPa short, 0.23 to 0.38 mm long, directed to Elcanidae (Orthoptera, Elcanoidea) from the Daohugou fossil bed of China 23 Figure 2. Photo and line drawing of Parelcana pulchmacula sp. nov. A, B holotype, CNU-ORT-NN2016041 C, D CNU-ORT-NN2016035 E, F CNU-ORT-NN2016042 G, H CNU-ORT-NN2016036.